Rethink International Intervention. Afghanistan, Mali, and Now?

Abstract

The recent take-over of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan marks a turn in international crisis and conflict management. The configuration as a double-hatted mission to secure and rebuild on the one hand, and in countering insurgency and terrorism on the other finally failed, an outcome that seems to recur in Mali. International law of transition and whole-of-system approaches remain however hypercritical work on the ground. A successful flexible framework for sustainable conflict transformation and peace processes must absorb lessons of both autocratic realpolitik and a massive trend of bipolarisation of geopolitics.